1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to side sills of a chassis and, more particularly, to a shock absorber for such side sills capable of effectively reducing impact transmission velocity at a side sill and preventing the side sill from being badly thrust into the passenger compartment in the event of a side collision, thus protecting passengers from serious injury and improving the safety of automobiles.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As well known to those skilled in the art, in order to secure the safety of passengers in the event of a car collision, it is necessary to perform collision tests of randomly selected sample cars in automobile manufacturing companies. Typically, two collision tests, that is, a head-on collision test and a side collision test, are performed to accomplish such an object. Such collision tests determine whether the cars meet collision safety standards, which are specified in the law. Most countries restrict imports of automobiles having collision safety values, which do not meet the specified safety standards.
In accordance with such collision tests, known automobiles are designed to somewhat effectively protect passengers from a head-on collision. However, the automobiles regrettably fail to effectively protect passengers from a side collision.
Such a failure in protecting passengers from a side collision is caused by a structural limit of a chassis. That is, the known side sill of a chassis is too frail to effectively resist being thrust into the passenger compartment in the event of a side collision of a car, thus causing the center pillar, side doors and roof to be badly dented into the passenger compartment and seriously injuring passengers in such a side collision. Therefore, the known side sill of a chassis reduces the safety of a car.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a chassis with a side sill being typically positioned at each side of the chassis. FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing the construction of a known side sill. As shown in the drawings, the known side sill is comprised of a side sill box 5, which is mounted at each side of a chassis at a position outside a center floor panel 1. In order to form such a side sill box 5, a side sill inner panel 2 is integrated with a side sill outer panel 3 into a hollow single structure, with a reinforcing member 4 being interiorly fixed to the outer panel 3 at its top and bottom ends so as to reinforce the hollow box 5.
However, the known side sill has a frail support, thus failing to effectively absorb a side impact at its outside portion in the event of a side collision. Therefore, the side sill allows the panels 1, 2, 3 and the reinforcing member 4 to be thrust into the passenger compartment in the event of such a collision. Therefore, the center pillar, side doors and roof of the car are badly dented into the passenger compartment and seriously injure the passengers in the passenger compartment. Such a frail side sill of the chassis reduces the safety of a car.